hysteria
pronunciation
How to pronounce hysteria in British English:
UK [hɪˈstɪəriə]
How to pronounce hysteria in American English:
US [hɪˈstɪriə]
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- Noun:
- state of violent mental agitation
- excessive or uncontrollable fear
- neurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks and disturbances of sensory and motor functions
Word Origin
- hysteria
- hysteria: [19] Greek hustérā meant ‘womb’ (it is related to Latin uterus ‘womb’). The adjective derived from it was husterikós ‘suffering in the womb’. This passed into Latin as hystericus, which formed the basis of the modern Latin noun hysteria, a term coined in the 19th century for a neurotic condition supposedly peculiar to women (in popular parlance it was called ‘the vapours’). Hysterectomy ‘surgical removal of the womb’ dates from the late 19th century.=> uterus
- hysteria (n.)
- 1801, coined in medical Latin as an abstract noun from hysteric (see hysterical) + abstract noun ending -ia.
Example
- 1. But there is little place for truth amid hysteria .
- 2. This time , the hysteria over inflation has no obvious factual basis .
- 3. Some crises spread hysteria ; some clear the mind and focus attention .
- 4. But there seems to be tolerant scepticism rather than royalist hysteria around the wedding itself .
- 5. But hostility to the maoists , sometimes bordering on hysteria , also looks exaggerated .